All societies have standard
kinship names for specific categories of relatives. For example, both ego's father's
sister (FaSi) and mother's sister
(MoSi) in the diagram belowwould be referred to
asego's aunt by most North Americans. Ego
obviously knows the difference between the aunts, but it is not important to assign
distinct terms of reference for them.

Different cultures
often have very dissimilar reference terms for relatives. For
instance, some cultures refer to the person in the diagram above labeled
MoSi (aunt in North America) as ego's mother. She is treated the same
way as the biological mother (who is also referred to as mother) for kinship
related matters. They
both have the same responsibilities and expectations in regards to ego.
Such kin terms are valuable clues to the nature of a kinship system
in a society as well as to the social statuses and roles
of kinsmen.Anthropologists
have discovered that there are only six basic kin naming
patterns or systems used by almost all of the thousands of cultures
in the world. They are
referred to as the Eskimo, Hawaiian, Sudanese, Omaha, Crow, and Iroquois
systems.

Eskimo System

The most common kin naming
pattern in North America and Europe today is known as the Eskimo
system.
Members of the nuclear family are given terms of reference based only on their gender and
generation (in the diagram below 1 = father, 2 = mother, 5 = brother, and 6 =
sister). No other relative is referred to by any of these terms.

Aunts and uncles are
distinguished from parents in the Eskimo system and separated only by gender (3 = aunt and
4 = uncle). The spouses of aunts and uncles may also be given these kin terms.
All cousins are lumped together (7 = cousin). No kinship distinction is made between
uncles, aunts, and cousins with regard to side of the family. For instance, there is
no kin term for aunts on the mother's side of the family in contrast to those on the
father's side--they are all called aunt.

The Eskimo kin naming
system is found mainly in societies that use the
bilateral principle of descent and that strongly
emphasize the nuclear family over more distant kinsmen. Both ego's mother's and
father's collateral relatives are
considered equally important. That is to say, no distinction is made between
relatives on the mother's and father's side of the family. This is reflected in the
kin names. Despite the fact that some relatives are lumped together with
the same linguistic terms in the Eskimo and other kin naming systems, people do make distinctions
between them as unique individuals. For instance, you
would make a distinction between your uncle John and your uncle Pete by
using their first names along with the kinship term.

The Eskimo system is one of the simplest,
despite the fact that it is found among some of the most technologically complex
societies. It is also found among hunters and gatherers living in harsh
environments, such as the Inuit, or Eskimo. In both of these extremes, the common
denominator for the Eskimo kin naming system is an economy that forces the nuclear family
to be mostly independent. The Eskimo system is used
today by about 10% of the world's societies.

Hawaiian
System

The least complex kin naming
pattern is found in the Hawaiian system.
The nuclear family is de-emphasized. Relatives
within the extended family are distinguished only by
generation and gender. This results in just four different terms of reference.
Ego's father and all male relatives in his generation have the same kin name (1).
Likewise, ego's mother and all female relatives in her generation are referred to by the
same kin term (2).

Similarly, all brothers and
male cousins are linked by giving them the same kin term (3). Sisters and all female
cousins are also referred to by the same term (4). Not surprisingly, marriage of
cousins is generally forbidden since they are treated like brothers and sisters.

The Hawaiian
terminological system is used by about a third of the
world's societies, though they are relatively small ones. It is found widely in the islands of Polynesia
where it is usually
associated with ambilineal descent.
Since both sides of the family are treated equally, an individual's choice of ancestral
line to trace is less biased.

Polynesian womanfrom Tonga

Sudanese
System

At
the opposite extreme in complexity is the Sudanese
system. Most kinsmen are
not lumped together under the same terms of reference. Each category of relative is
given a distinct term based on genealogical distance from ego and on the side of the
family. There can be eight different cousin terms, all of whom are distinguished
from ego's brother and sister.

The Sudanese system
is found in Sudan, Turkey, and some other societies with patrilineal descent and
considerable social complexity. The fine distinctions made between kinsmen mirrors
the society's desire to distinguish people on the basis of class, occupation, and
political power.